Archive for April, 2010

Most people interested in gay rights have been following the case of high school lesbian Constance McMillen and her desire to go with her girlfriend to their senior prom. The school, rather than allow her to go, and in the face of a lawsuit, cancled the prom. The ACLU sued on behalf of McMillen and won. The court ruled that baring a student from attending a prom with a date of the same sex violates that persons constitutional rights. The court did not, however, make the school reschedule the prom. The rational for this was that the parents, in response to the prom being canceled, had planned their own prom, and the court felt that ordering the school start a second prom would only confuse things.

And for a few brief minutes my faith I felt warm thoughts about the south. Sure the administration of her school are bigots, but the court did the right thing, and the parents did the right thing by scheduling their own prom. Even the bulk of students, when interviewed, suggested they supported her right to go to prom.

For those of you not inclined to read the article I’ll sum it up. The parents scheduled two proms: one for the lesbian, her girlfriend, and some special ed students…..and another for all the other students. They didn’t tell the 7 excluded students about the secret prom for the rest of the students. So Constance shows up to prom only to find out she’s been duped by the entire class and all of the parents.

Every time I think the south has goodness in it they pull the football up and I go flying.

P.S.

Those of you who know me are aware that my previous definition of “the south” was “everything south of The Village.” That is now edited to “everything south of DC.”

P.P.S

I still, however, define “upstate new york” as “everything north of 110th street.”